Rebuking the far-right government in Israel under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli students now join the massive protestors, announcing their refusal to serve in a ‘fascist’ military.
As protests against the Netanyahu government and its extremist policies is still ongoing in across Israel, students are now the latest group of Israelis who just joined the already huge groups of demonstrators.
This Monday, a group of more than 200 Israeli students issued an online letter statement, announcing their refusal to be drafted into the army and serve as a member of the Israeli forces. The reason for such a decision, as the student noted in their statemen, was their concern about the rise of “fascism “and dictatorship in Israel under the new far-right government.
“We will not draft until democracy is guaranteed to everyone who lives under Israeli rule,” the students said in their statement, parts of which were held as banners in their hands during their protest in Tel Aviv this Monday evening. The letter statement also called for creating an organization titled “Youth Against Dictatorship” to oppose what they described as growing “fascism” in Israel and the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories.
“The more I saw the behavior of the army and the state — first during the Balfour protests [against former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] and then in Sheikh Jarrah — the more I decided that I cannot remain silent or take part in oppression and apartheid,” said one of the students who was protesting Monday evening.
“I decided to refuse because the main goal of the army is the ethnic cleansing of non-Jews. This is something I cannot abide by — neither ideologically nor morally. That’s why I choose not to serve,” the student added.
Young Israeli students know they will pay the price, but they still hope for change
Israeli students now hope that they can win more support both from other Israeli students as well as their parents and teachers. But the resistance not to serve in the Israeli military after graduation will come with worrying consequences for the students because serving in military is compulsory for young Israelis. “My next step is a stay in military prison for my refusal to serve, which will begin in November,” said one of the students named Sophie.
However, Sophie believes that things must change in Israel and the first steps are always the hardest. “I think there’s undoubtedly a trend, thanks to the reservists’ refusal to serve as well and, hopefully, because of this event, that the word ‘refusal’ itself has even become more mainstream. It’s still treated like a dirty word, but it’s being spoken,” the young Israeli student added.
Recent polls conducted in Israel show that support for refusal to serve in the military has sparked alarmingly among Israeli youth. In one of such polls carried out by the Israel Democracy Institute, the result showed that almost half of young Jewish Israelis support ending mandatory conscription and turning the Israel Defense Forces into a volunteer, professional military,
Similarly, another survey conducted early this year by the Israeli military’s (IDF) Center for Behavioral Sciences indicated an alarming decline in the motivation of young Israelis to enlist in military compared to previous years. “In December 2022, only 66 percent of male recruits stated that they wanted to serve in combat units, compared to 73 percent in the previous year, indicating that motivation in 2022 was the lowest on record,” the survey noted.
